Winchester CVS Now Offers Coronavirus Vaccine

WINCHESTER, MA — The Winchester CVS is now administering coronavirus vaccinations, the company announced Friday.

The number of CVS pharmacies taking appointments for the shots in Massachusetts rose from 18 to 136, since the company began giving shots in the state.

The new locations announced Friday are spread throughout the entire state. As of about noon Friday, all of them —including the Winchester location — were listed as "fully booked" on the CVS website, but customers were being urged to keep checking and make an appointment when one becomes available.

Residents older than 65, people with two or more underlying health conditions, health care workers, first responders and residents and staff of low income and affordable senior housing are all eligible for the vaccine in the commonwealth.

Gov. Charlie Baker also said teachers can begin to sign up for vaccine appointments on March 11.

CVS's vaccine rollout is part of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for COVID-19 vaccines.
The program is implemented based on the available vaccine supply at select retail pharmacy locations. As vaccine availability increases, the program will expand to include all 40,000 pharmacies in the United States, the CDC said.

As of Thursday, more than 1.3 million people in the commonwealth had gotten a single dose of one of the vaccines, while more than 614,000 had received both shots, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher contributed to this report.